Those of you in the UDS-R (Raring Ringtail) group photo must have been quite disappointed this time around! Instead of having to climb precarious ladders or hang out of third-story windows to get the shot I had a nice stable balcony to stand on! Truth be told, while taping the boundaries, my cohort Brian and I were trying to figure out how to get me up into the tree for sheer comedy value. No luck. Maybe next time.

Since my shiny new EOS M was still preordered and didn’t arrive in time the setup was the same as Budapest, Orlando, and Oakland; shot with my workhorse EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM mounted to the EOS-1D Mark IV on 10 FPS burst to increase the chances of getting a usable shot with all the movement in the crowd. Unfortunately the poor lighting meant I was shooting relatively high ISOs so there’s quite a bit of noise on the originals. Flash photography in the rest of the gallery was lit by a Speedlite 580EX II with a few shots here and there taken with the EF 40mm f/2.8 STM.

Another UDS, another chance for me to risk life and limb by climbing dangerously high objects to get a good vantage point to take the group photo! Setup was the same as Orlando; shot with my workhorse EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM mounted to the usual EOS-1D Mark IV on 10 FPS burst to increase the chances of getting a usable shot with all the movement in the crowd. Unfortunately the poor lighting meant I was shooting insanely high ISOs so there’s quite a bit of noise on the originals.

UDS-Q photos cc by-sa 2012 Sean Sosik-Hamor (prints can be ordered by clicking the Buy button in the gallery):

It’s déjà vu all over again! It looks just like last year, only a bit more organized! Since getting everyone balanced in a group photo the size of this is akin to herding cats I decided to lay down boundaries with gaffer tape like at UDS-O in Budapest. It worked out extremely well; it’s much easier to say “stay inside the pink tape” than to bark orders over the crowd to get individual people to move and fill in the gaps. And remember, if you can’t see my lens, I can’t see you!

UDS-P photos cc by-sa 2011 Sean Sosik-Hamor (prints can be ordered by clicking the Buy button in the gallery):

Shot with my workhorse EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM mounted to the usual EOS-1D Mark IV on 10 FPS burst to increase the chances of getting a usable shot with all the movement in the crowd. Apologies for taking a while to get these posted; it’s been a hectic four weeks of travel, event support, and sprinting.

Following what appears to be a new UDS tradition Randall managed to capture me herding everyone into the photo box made out of pink tape! (cc by-sa 2.0 rrnwexec)

After 8544 miles traveled, 16 days on the road, 40 GB of RAW photos, and two days of post-travel coma, I’ve posted the official group photos and my personal photo set from Ubuntu Developer Summit Oneiric Ocelot (UDS-O) which took place at the opulent Corinthia Hotel Budapest (formerly Grand Hotel Royal), Budapest, Hungary, EU (9th – 13th May 2011). UDS was insanely hectic as usual trying to keep everything running smoothly behind the scenes. Luckily there were enough lulls to give me a chance to meet a bunch of new faces and catch up on some of my favorite projects.

UDS-O photos cc by-sa 2011 Sean Sosik-Hamor (prints can be ordered by clicking the Buy button in the gallery):

Unlike UDS-N in Orlando where I found out on short notice that I would be the official photographer I came a bit more prepared this time toting my EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM on top of the usual EOS-1D Mark IV, EF 50mm f/1.2L USM, and pair of 580EX II Speedlites that permanently live in the Fastpack 350 that always accompanies me everywhere. Immediately upon arriving at the hotel and checking in I scouted locations and found a gorgeous spot to take the group photo shooting down from the fifth floor catwalk into the Southeast atrium bathed natural light from the skylights and six-story street-facing glass wall.

Unfortunately the hotel staff disagreed with my selection and pushed us into the lobby spilling up the main staircase when it came time to actually shoot the group photo. This location was less than ideal forcing me to shoot at a strange angle from an offset second floor guest room window overlooking the lobby with mixed tungsten, CFL, sunlight, and shadow.

This required a bit of pre-planning and creativity to make sure everyone would be in the photo and wouldn’t be blocked by pedestals or balconies. Liberal use of pink highvis gaffer tape on the floor to mark the boundaries of the frame and verbal instruction (if you can’t see my lens then I can’t see you) seems to have ensured that everyone actually got into the photo…including some creative trolls folks who made their way up to the first floor balconies!

The rest of the photos shot throughout the week were dead-simple and accomplished by utilizing natural light or by dragging the shutter with on-camera bounce flash with catchlight panel. While the more difficult nighttime outdoor bar and cafe photos had the Speedlite pointing straight up into the air with only the catchlight panel bathing the subject with fill flash, the indoor Orfeum Club photos also utilized a strategically-placed remote Speedlite and glass ceiling to create some interesting effects.

I’ve posted the official group photo and my personal photo set from Ubuntu Developer Summit Natty Narwhal (UDS-N) which took place at The Caribe Royal, Orlando, Florida, USA – 25th – 29th October 2010. Overall it was quite a productive trip and, in addition to working event support, running video cameras, photographing the event, and attending sessions, I got to hang out with the usual gang of Open Source superstars and meet plenty of new faces!

UDS-N photos cc by-sa 2010 Sean Sosik-Hamor (prints can be ordered by clicking the Buy button after clicking through to the below galleries):

I was a little caught out by volunteering to do the UDS-N group photo since Ken Wimer, the usual photographer, wasn’t in attendance and the photoshoot had already been scheduled. I knew it would be a bit of a scramble to get everything squared away because I was traveling light and the only lens in my bag was an EF 50mm f/1.2L USM (my standard shoot-anywhere workhorse).

The first task was to source a lens since a 50mm just wasn’t going to cut it. Many thanks to Ted Gould for letting me borrow his EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM lens as well as the Novacut guys for offering up their EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM on standby. It just goes to show how great the Ubuntu community is and how the Open Source sharing mentality even carries over to physical (and quite expensive) gear.

Once the lens was sourced a location had to be scouted so I contacted Yvonne from hotel services to arrange a quick tour of the grounds. We explored the various courtyards and ponds but the prime location was right in front of us the whole time: the West entrance to the convention center closest to the UDS session rooms. The West entrance loop was blocked off with traffic cones to keep cars out of the shoot and I scheduled hotel engineering to set up a ladder for Friday afternoon before lunch so I could get some test shots.

Once everyone was lined up outside and herded into the frame I fired a few bursts at 10 FPS (which made everyone giggle) to make sure I had plenty of posed, waving, and jumping shots to choose from. The photoshoot itself ran smoothly and only took a few minutes leaving plenty of time for coffee before heading back into sessions.